Yael Valencia Aldana On Books And Writing

For my latest author interview, I connected with Yael Valencia Aldana. She lives in Pompano Beach, Florida.

This interview has been edited lightly.

Would you tell me a little bit about your forthcoming poetry collection?

“Black Mestiza” is a collection that explores my complicated ethnic origins. My maternal line is solidly Indigenous from the people of Colombia, along with Spanish and African ancestry. On my father’s side I have both African and Scottish origins. I move comfortably through these identities.

Society expects people like me to choose one identity. Binaries make people comfortable, but I am not a binary. I choose all. My mother showed me how to move easily between multiple identities. This collection explores my life lived in plurals.

The collection is also an elegy to my mother, who died eighteen years ago. She was a ferocious character who formed me in her image. She’s been gone for so long, but I feel her with me every day. She is ever present in my son. She died when he was one, but he and she are so alike it’s frightening.

How long did it take to write?

Technically, this book took about thirty years to come together. I wrote the bulk of the book in the five years surrounding my MFA program [at Florida International University]. I wrote a few poems about thirty years ago. Back then, I had no intention of doing anything with my writing. It never occurred to me to be a writer. I read a lot, and I wrote for the joy of it. No one saw this work until I showed a few poems to a mentor in my MFA program. She thought the old poems stood up to the rest of my work, so I included them.

Do you have a writing routine?

I do not have a writing routine. But I am a disciplined writer. When I need to write, I hunker down and do. When I need to write, I read. I have a few books that are my go-to like old friends, like Margret Atwood’s novel “Cat’s Eye,” her poetry collection “Two-Headed Poems,” Toni Morrison’s novel “Beloved,” Lucille Clifton’s “Mercy,” and Ada Limón’s “The Carrying.”

Once I start reading, my mind shifts, and I automatically start to write in kind. I write in pencil in the book’s margins as I’m reading, and things start from there. I love to write on my bed, snuggling with my dog.

How did you go about finding a publisher?

Over time, I signed up for newsletters and social media accounts and took note of open reading periods and contests. The first contest I entered was for Two Sylvias Press for female poets debuting late in life. I was fortunate to be a semifinalist. That result gave me the courage to retool the manuscript. It wasn’t quite ready. I included a whole section that didn’t quite mesh with the others to make my page count. I wrote a lot between submitting and getting the results, so I had new poems to flesh out the manuscript that were on theme.

With the help of my mentor, I made a list of dream publishers, including university presses. I submitted to selected contests and open reading contests. I had a five-year plan for the manuscript and was prepared to be in the trenches with this book for the long haul.

I got two offers to publish the book which shocked me, both from university presses. I accepted the offer from the University Press of Kentucky. “Black Mestiza” won this press’s New Poetry and Prose Series Prize 2023 in poetry. I still can’t quite believe it, but I am so grateful.

Does your work as a teacher have any effect on your poetry?

I treasure my work as a teacher. I teach Intro to Creative Writing at Florida International University. My students are just starting to write, and I know it sounds corny, but I always learn something from them. I think everyone can write given the right tools. It’s incredible what they produce when you give them permission to be creative. My favorite aspect is re-introducing them to poetry. Many of them come into class thinking that they hate poetry. In our first classes, we read poems about transmissions and the TV show “Fear Factor,” which usually changes their minds. It’s wonderful watching poetry-haters turn into poets.

We start every class with a short free writing exercise. Because I am a freelance writer, I spend a lot of time generating income opportunities. Sometimes, this class exercise is the only opportunity I have to write. You can accomplish so much in a short time. My students have generated stellar ideas, and I have published work written during these free writes. I learned this practice from one of my teachers, and I hope I have passed this habit on to my students.

Any big projects in the works?

I have a lot of projects in the works. I work best with a lot of things going on. I have a memoir in circulation. I am working on a new poetry collection tentatively called “Cruel Childhood.” In her novel “Cat’s Eye,” Margaret Atwood wrote: “Little girls are cute and small only to adults. To one another, they are not cute. They are life-sized.”

This is true for all children. This is when we first experience cruelty. This is when we develop patterns that we repeat endlessly in adulthood. It took me a while to settle on a unifying theme for my next collection. I’m excited to explore this one.

I’m also finishing up a mystery novel with a black female detective as a main character. I am a multi-genre writer. I write poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. I watch a lot of true crime. I am fascinated by extreme circumstances that push people to do their best or their worst. I always ask, “What would normal and ordinary people do when pushed to their limits?” My character, Detective Jackie Charbonneau, gets the cases no one wants and has to answer those questions the hard way.